WWW Wednesday (January 6th)

Happy New Year fellow WWW-ers. Here’s to another year filled with all things bookish! Hope you’re prepared for a longish post as I read 3 books in the last week…whoop whoop 🙂

This weekly meme is hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. It’s open to all to participate. Why not join in and let us know what’s on your reading list this week…

To join in, just answer the following three questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m currently reading…

The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern

I’ve not read any Cecelia Ahern before and I heard her being interviewed on the Radio 2 book club and I just had to buy this book. Listen here and tell me this book doesn’t intrigue you 😉

The blurbA forgotten childhood. A discovered life.What if you only had one day to find out who you really were?When Sabrina Boggs stumbles upon a mysterious collection of her father’s possessions, she discovers a truth where she never knew there was a lie. The familiar man she grew up with is suddenly a stranger to her.An unexpected break in her monotonous daily routine leaves her just one day to unlock the secrets of the man she thought she knew. A day that unearths memories, stories and people she never knew existed. A day that changes her and those around her forever.

I recently finished

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

If you loved To Kill a Mockingbird don’t shatter those wonderful memories of it by reading this. Personally, it didn’t add anything for me and was a waste of time. I would have preferred to remember those original characters as they were.

The blurbMaycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s own conscience.

I also read

The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood

This book is full of dark, depraved and extremely questionable actions with so many lies and twists with an ending that I just didn’t see coming and so worthy of 5*. One of the best ‘who and how dunnits’ I’ve read in a long time. Review here.

The blurbApologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help. My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family’s holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. Coco is three years old. When identical twin Coco goes missing during a family celebration, there is a media frenzy. Her parents are rich and influential, as are the friends they were with at their holiday home by the sea. But what really happened to Coco?

And…I also read

Binary Witnessby Rosie Claverton

An interesting partnership makes for addictive reading which reminded me of the tv show CSI:Cyber. One thing I find interesting is police detectives using ‘outsider’ help, you know how Inspector Lestrade has Sherlock; does this actually happen?

The blurbPolice detectives rely on Amy Lane to track the digital debris of their most elusive criminals—when she’s not in the throes of a panic attack. After two students disappear in Cardiff, Amy uncovers photographic evidence that they’ve been murdered. From the safety of her computer, she looks through the city’s digital eyes to trace the steps of a killer.Amy’s investigation requires footwork, however, and the agoraphobic genius can’t hack it alone. She turns to her newly-hired cleaner, ex-con Jason Carr. Jason is fascinated by both Amy and the work, and can’t refuse even when she sends him into situations that risk returning him to prison.The killer strikes again and again, and Amy and Jason are the only investigators closing in on him. But Amy’s psyche is cracking under the strain, and Jason’s past is catching up with him. To stop the next murder, they must hold their unconventional partnership together at any cost.

What’s up next?

Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell

Heard really good things about this and have been lucky enough to receive an ARC.

The blurb

Lois and Carly-May are just twelve years old when they’re abducted, driven across the country, and imprisoned in a remote, isolated hunting lodge for two months. That summer, under the watchful gaze of their kidnapper, they form a bond which will never be broken . . .
Decades later, both Lois and Carly-May have built new lives and identities for themselves. Lois, a professor of literature, is shaken when an obsessive student reminds her of the man who kidnapped her, a man she saw shoot himself on the porch twenty years before.
Out in LA, Carly-May is drinking too much and watching her beauty-queen looks fade, clinging to the last remnants of a once-promising career as an actress. When she reads a shockingly familiar screenplay, she warily she takes a role she knows is based on events from her own life.
Increasingly haunted by the devastating experience that shaped both their lives, Lois and Carly-May are drawn together again in a world that both echoes and falsifies their beautiful, terrible story.

Have you read any of this week’s choices or share what books you’re reading?

23 Comments

Your reaction to Go Set A Watchman is pretty much exactly why I’ve been avoiding it. Not to mention, at this point, I know I’ll just go into it wanting to dislike it, so it wouldn’t be fair either way.

I read The Darkest Secret this week too and absolutely loved it, it was my first read of the year so everything else I read has a lot to live up to now! I have The Marble Collector and Pretty is on my TBR and hope to read them both very soon, I’m sure they’re both going to be great reads. Happy reading!

That confirms my suspicions and a lot of other things I’d heard about Go Set A Watchman. I’m not going to read it. Instead, I’ll find time to re-read Mockingbird at some point – such a wonderful book.
Cecilia Ahern is one of those authors I’ve only heard good things about, but I’ve never got round to reading anything of hers (I think, or if I have, I’ve forgotten). I’ll wait for your review of The Marble Collector to see if I make that my first one.
Thanks for visiting my WWW (https://clairehuston.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/www-wednesday-6th-january-2016/) and happy reading (as always)!

Watchman isn’t going to be for everyone, me included. Had it been released last year as a debut novel, I can’t see it getting all the hype it had…hey ho you can’t please everyone!
I’m about 40 pages into The Marble Collector and love it. Love the writing and reminiscing over the marble games I played as a kid 🙂

I’m interested to read your comment on Go Set a Watchman. Recently I saw a stage adaptation of TKAMB and was thinking of reading the sequel but something was putting me off. Maybe it just needs to be left as a once in a lifetime original. Happy New Year! My WWW is http://indie-bookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/www-wednesday-4.html

Another fine selection this week – you’re comments about Go Set A Watchman made me pleased I decided not to read it! I loved The Darkest Secret and Binary Witness is on my kindle waiting for me to read it. Thanks for visiting my blog earlier 🙂

Thanks Cleo. The Darkest Secret was a great read and has set the bar for me for 2016 crime thriller reads. Binary Witness is right up your street, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it. There are 2 more already in that series by the way 😉

I really want to read The Darkest Secret! And your thoughts on Go Set A Watchman confirmed my doubts about it; I don’t think I will read it any time soon. The Marble Collector sounds like a great read! 🙂